Its been 20 years of misery for Steve Brown who is paralysed and is appealing to Government to help him. Since he became wheelchair-bound, Brown, 50, has been forced to bathe with a sponge from a bucket and empty his bowels in a potty chair.
With no one to help him, Brown often drags on his buttocks to get down the stairs of his mud house at Commission Street, Mon Repos, San Fernando. The windows of Brown's ramshackle house are barricaded with galvanised sheets while the ceiling and walls are covered in cobwebs. The house does not have indoor plumbing, a bathroom nor a toilet and is overgrown with bushes. In an interview, Brown says he tries his best to keep his surroundings clean, using a cocoyea broom to sweep the plyboard floor.
He makes good use of his bucket baths and hangs up his hand-washed clothes on the windows. "I cook my own food on a fire cracker (stove) and spend most of the day reading, watching TV and praying that I would have a proper home," Brown said.
On July 4, 1992 Brown's life took a downward turn. On that day, he said, he climbed an orange tree at a friend's home in Debe and fell off, damaging his spine. "The San Fernando General Hospital did not have a neurosurgeon so it was more than two weeks later ( July 20) they did an MRI scan at the medical centre," Brown said. He said several internal organs, including his bladder, were damaged forcing him to wear a urine bag (catheter) for the rest of his life. When his lower body became paralysed, Brown began doing therapy but he never regained control of his legs. At the time, he lived with his seven-year-old daughter, Jenna, whose mother migrated to Canada, six years earlier. Unable to care for Jenna, Brown said he sent her to Canada in 1995.
In the early days of his accident, Brown said his mother, Joyce Dowlat, then 51, cared for him but since then she suffered a stroke and is also wheelchair-bound. Brown said most of his relatives have drifted away and nobody, except his sister, Annette Lane, visits him weekly. He said each morning he prays for a better life. Smiling despite his disability, Brown said he wanted to be involved in society. He added: "I don't want to be tucked in a corner. I want to attend meetings and engage in activities to help people like me. "I want the Government to provide a place for me where I can still be in and around the city." He added that life in his ramshackle house was depressing so often he would wheel himself uphill along Commission Street and pay a taxi to take him to High Street. "There are days that I have to wait two hours to get a car. People in this country don't care to stop for a handicapped man," Brown said. As an incentive, Brown said he would pay additional money to the taxi driver so that they would not hesitate to pick him up again. "On some days I go hungry and I have to wait on my next public assistance cheque to get by," Brown added. He said he also made several trips to the Housing Development Corporation with the hope he could get a proper home.
Anyone wanting to assist Brown can contact him at 314-3319.
